"We're not in trouble," said Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien. "We're in a series that is a hard fought series.

"What we have to do is get our game going in the right direction, which means [renewing] our commitment to outworking the other team and...our commitment to making better decisions on the ice -- I think it's a combination of both."

The word mindset came up - again.

"Right now we've struggled the last couple of games," said Julien. "But there are ups-and-downs in a season."

"You win a game and you're Stanley Cup contenders," continued Julien."You lose one and you're in trouble.

"That's what you have to face everyday. So we just have to keep our focus on what we have to do. Believe in ourselves and go out and do it...we're very capable of doing that."

Hence, the day off.

"That's what this whole day off is all about," said the B's bench boss. "Take a step back.

"Let's regroup here. And let's get back to playing the type of game we know we can."

Injury Update: There was no news on Andrew Ference, who left last night's game with an undisclosed issue.
9:46 a.m.

Boston Bruins' Mark Recchi (facing camera) celebrates his goal with teammate Steve Montador (23) during the third period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 6, 2009. Hurricanes' Jussi Jokinen (36), from Finland, looks on. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

A strange morning.

No skates or on-ice practices for either team. Both coaches will speak, but only the Hurricanes players will talk with the media.

Hopefully, Coach Julien has some comforting words. Last night, however, there was not much for him to say.

"We had some great chances," said Julien. "But you know, there’s such a thing that they call hockey gods.

"Sometimes they’ll give the breaks to the team that deserves it. Tonight, unfortunately, we didn’t really deserve this game the way we played."

It was a hard truth, and one that didn't get any easier when Julien gave specifics -- particularly about the second period.

"I think this was one of those periods where I saw the most turnovers and the most plays that we made that we don’t normally make," he said. "I don’t know the term to use, but they weren’t very smart ones.

"It was very uncharacteristic of our hockey club, and they put us behind the eight ball.

"You’ve got to give credit to the other team," continued Julien. "They played extremely well, they played extremely hard. But we certainly didn’t give them a good opposition tonight, and we certainly didn’t give too much resistance.

"We still got ourselves in a position tonight to win the hockey game by going into overtime, and we had a few early chances. But nonetheless, we certainly didn’t deserve this one.”